Hog Blog

And The Winner Is - SYDNEY

2007-10-30T23:03:00.000+10:00

A work commitment involved us travelling to Sydney for a few days and we decided that the next Hoggies adventure would be one of the 9 Hogs Breath cafes in Sydney.

Featuring An All New Dessert

Yes it is all about the steak, but this is the new Rocky Road, but we customised it. It is supposed to have strawberry ice cream and topping, but we asked for plain ice cream and chocolate topping - which we got, no questions asked...

And a happy snap by one of our waiters whist we indulged.

So Where Is This One?

And just in case you were wondering which Hogs Breath this was, Ms_Zane has the details :)

Mark -n- Zane

RiverFire 2007

2007-09-02T01:52:00.000+10:00

There is a just distant noise as the jet approaches, then with a roar and flash that lights the sky, it dumps its fuel, hits its afterburners and lights the sky over Brisbane - River Fire 2007 has begun...

The crowd goes wild and over the next half hour, the city explodes with a fireworks spectacular - a truly impressive sight. These shots were taken off the William Jolly Bridge looking south towards Victoria Bridge. I used a tripod and reduced the shutter speed to 0.2 seconds.

Then it was off to Hogs Breath Cafe for steak where we were joined by DTVforum member Mick [mgrobins]...

Ms_Zane needed to satisfy her curiosity about the Salmon, so I ordered her meal with the Tasmanian Salmon instead of steak. Whilst it was nice, Hogs Breath's speciality is steak, not fish [top left]...

Thanks Mick for joining us, we had a pleasant night. For those that couldn't attend, we understand if you had prior engagements as there was also an AFL final and the SilverChair/PowderFinger rock concert all on the same night...

Mark and Ms_Zane

DIE HARD 4.0 - DIE HARD FOOD

2007-08-10T22:15:00.001+10:00

Mark

Ms_Zane

And The FOOD

Whilst Ms_Zane ordered El Grande with [vegetables, not salad - hmm different] a Baked Potato and everything on the side, I ordered the Smoked Hickory [my former favourite], with Mash, Bacon Rashes and Cheese Sauce over the veggies. I think we ended up Boss Hog cuts - they were HUGE. I should have turned my plate, my steak was almost 2" [5cm] thick at one end.

After dinner we went to see Die Hard 4.0...

Mark & Zane

Its All About The Food - And Happy Birthday Michael

2007-07-22T01:18:00.000+10:00

This was our first time to the Hoggies at Indooroopilly. We had attempted to come here before, but our earlier experiences were not the best - including not being able to get a prime rib or a booking...

Its all about the food

But tonight was pleasant to say the least. Prime Ribs all round and lots of sides YUM!!! The steaks were right up there with the best I've has from Hog's Breath Cafe as well...

Happy Birthday Michael

A free mini mud :) for the Birthday boy...

Sisters

And a chance for Ms_Zane and younger sister Miranda (Michael's wife) to catch up...

Mark and Ms_Zane

Being A Little Impulsive

2007-07-04T23:30:00.000+10:00

We were supposed to just go and see a movie [Transformers] at the Logan Hyper Dome. Of course you know what else is there, and during the trailers [why are they called that when they come before the movie?] we made a late reservation from the seat in the cinema for after our film - and we specifically asked for Prime Ribs which we got too...

ANOTHER FINE STEAK

Sorry for the bad image, but the only camera I had on me at the time was my built into my phone...

Mark -n- Zane

A Farewell Dinner

2007-06-09T13:40:00.000+10:00

It has been a while since the last Hog Blog, so to farewell two of Ms_Zane's staff [Kaye and Adele] we went to Hoggies at Logan Hyperdome...

A VERY WELL STOCKED BARStarting at the bar we had the usual beverages...

A RAZOR BACK

Yes the pig is real, shot and stuffed, these feral pigs [AKA the Razor Back] make a great trophy at the bar at Hog's Breath Cafes...

MARK'S DINNER

I was actually really impressed with my dinner. Mine is a bit of a hybrid - mostly El Grandee with some Hickory on the side. Whilst I find the quality of the food to be very high, this was actually one of the better steaks I have had at Hog's Breath Cafe...

MS_ZANE'S DINNER

An El Grandee with baked potato and salad. Mz_Zane did ask for everything on the side, but just look at that, the sour cream is ON the potato. When [if ever] will they get it right?

A WHINE ABOUT WINE

I really want to know where [or who] in Australia said that red wine should be consumed at "room temperature". Given that it was cold last night made the red at least palatable, but normally I would have asked for an ice bucket. I understand in Europe [where it is actually cold] that red wine is consumed at room temp, but we don't live in Europe!!!

Overall a pleasant evening and then off to the cinema to watch SHREK THE THIRD...

Mark -n- Ms_Zane

Celebrating 2 Years Together At Hoggies...

2007-04-02T22:29:00.000+10:00

Enjoying The Sun Set

Not enough people really slow down enough to take in the amazing colours of a sunset. On Saturday night, we ventured into the city for our 2nd anniversary to the first date [which wasn't actually a date] 2 years [and a week] prior [a long story there], but started our visit with a walk from South Bank in the late afternoon...

Enjoying the view of Petrie Terrace

Our booking was not until 630, so we grabbed a few drinks and headed out to the deck to sit, relax and watch the traffic roll on pass...

NICE!!!

And this was parked across the road...DROOL...

Yes It's All About The Food...

Because that Tex Mex looked so good, I thought I would give it a go, and it was pretty good...

It was supposed to come with a standard steak, but I ordered my steak as an 18 hour prime rib.

It's a RARE thing

This has got to be the best steak yet...

A quick shot of our waitresses bum :)

So as usual, another pleasant Hoggies Experience.

Brissie at night

We finished the night with a ferry [and city cat] ride on the river over looking our beautiful city at night...

Mark -n- Zane

Birds Of A Feather Flock Together!!!And they came from near and far...

2007-03-17T12:34:00.000+10:00

Over the past week, Ms_Zane and I have enjoyed a holiday at the beautiful Gold Coast. As a part of that holiday, Ms_Zane organized to have some fellow scrappers from Sydney come up to stay at the resort with us. She also arranged to have a Saturday night dinner at the Hogs Breath Cafe at Mermaid Waters. This started out as a group of 6 and quickly grew to over 20...
We all met around 6:30 and ordered our drinks and entrees...[note all the cameras in the back ground]

ENTREES!!!

Entrees were served as everyone got into the mood. This is classic Garlic bread [which I normally don't order] and was YUMMY!!!

The following is just a few quick snaps around the room... sorry if I missed you...

SOME OF THE PARTY!

AND DINNER IS SERVED

The crew at Hoggies did an excellent job of taking orders [by name] and serving the meals in the same order they were taken. Over 20 People at one long table. Well done guys!!!

As usual, I always take a snap a shot of my meal for this BLOG...

HERE'S WHAT I SAW

But when your in a room full of scrappers, every photo opportunity is one not to be missed as someone quickly snapped...

A PHOTO OF ME TAKING A PHOTO

BUT JUST WHO WAS IT?

OOPS, CAN WE SAY P!NK CHICKEN?

This poor lady was very worried that here chicken was undercooked, and, as she was pregnant, had every right to be concerned. Personally I think it was a combination of the dim lights and maybe even the cut of the chicken [thigh not breast] that made it appear slightly off white - yes maybe slightly into the shade of pink - anyway she was not a happy camper and sent this back to the kitchen quick smart...Hoggies did the right thing, re-cooked her meal and gave her 50% off...

Other than that, I think everyone really enjoyed their meals. How good does this look?

THE TEX MEX

Steak and a burrito [I think] but it looked good with a serve of Hog Tail Fries and that salad on the side, but I had an EL GRAN DE...

THERE'S THAT MUD CAKE AGAIN
Some light dessert to end an excellent night before...

I AM GIVEN THE DUTY OF CAMERA MAN

It was my duty to take as many photos as I could of the group at the front. Not every one made it into the shot. Maybe next time I'll bring the Tri-pod...

Mark -n- Zane

Hog Trails

2007-02-21T16:31:00.000+10:00

There are progressive dinners, and then there is our HOG TRAILS...

For Valentines Day, I was given a set of clues to where we might go to dine. One of the clues was to go to where we celebrated our National Holiday - which was of course Hogs Breath Cafe at Victoria Point.

We had a booking for 6.30, but I was a little worried when the owner confirmed our booking with the comments "only here for an entree"...

WHAT NO STEAK!?!

The look says it all. Total dis-belief that all I could have here was ...

HOG TAIL FRIES "EL GRANDEE"

...Which were quite nice by the way...

So after a rum and coke (to get me over the no steak shock) we headed for the next venue which turned out to be the Hogs Breath at Cleveland for our main.

YUM - S T E A K

A prime rib with mushrooms which made me much happier...
though I don't think this is medium rare...

So after a few more drinks, we headed off to the final destination for some dessert at Carindale.
Where once again, I just could not help myself and had that 29 pointer yet again...

Overall the night was pleasant, with not so quite quick service at Cleveland.

Due to the fact that we did 3 Hoggies in one night, I am not going to bore you with the usual rating...

Mark -n- Zane

Main Beach - The Gold Coast

2007-02-11T14:21:00.000+10:00

Well as you all know by now, we are both hog-a-holics so off to yet another Hoggies for succulent prime rib...

This trip landed us on The Gold Coast at Main Beach (located on Sea World Drive). Originally we were going to go north to Aspley, but their phone just wouldn't answer, then we thought about Indro, but they couldn't get us in (much less guarantee us a prime rib), Red Cliff was the same, so we headed south.

TIP - It really pays to book...
When we got there, 2 couples in front of us were asked to sit at the bar as there were no tables, but we got a table :)

Now it was fairly busy, so I'll cut them a little slack, but here goes...

Our waitress was polite and quick to take our order ... but...

Here is Mr Mark - not impressed that they forgot his 2nd Barcardi...

while Ms_Zane sits back enjoying her usual after the meals were eaten :)

Now it is important to note that Ms_Zane MUCH PREFERS to get her wine FIRST, relax and enjoy that and then have the meal delivered. It was really busy, so thinking the meals might be a little slow we ordered both drinks and meals at the same time. NOT A GOOD IDEA (well at least this time)! :( To their credit the meals were delivered VERY quickly (only about a 10 minute wait after we ordered) BUT neither of us had received our drinks yet.

Also when the meals were left at our table by a lovely (but very shy waitress - Mark tried to get a pic of her delivering dinner but she was not keen at all) we were left sitting for about 5 minutes before we could flag down another waitress and get some cutlery! It is very difficult to eat a steak in a civil manner without any knives or forks! We reminded this lassy about the drinks too! Which came very quickly with an apology.

As always, the meals are exceptional...

with everything on the side like we asked :)

Sprung!!! But all the power to Ms_Zane for keeping track of all of this...

NB: Mr Mark's dinner is nearly done (as well as eating half of Ms_zane's steak) before she was even 1/4 of the way through - he must've been very hungry (or 'piggy' - excuse the pun)!

Whilst Mark sinned again...

Over all another nice Hog's Breath Cafe experience.

Whilst we were there, we decided it would be fairer to have a system to our rating the different Hog's Breath visits we have rather than just going with a random feeling SO we came up with this list of things we felt where important to us about our Hooggies visits:

Service & Personality/Mood of waitstaff (both when booking on the phone and at the restaurant).
Order taken correctly.
Timely delivery of Drinks.
Serviettes, coasters, cutlery and clean glasses.
Meals delivered as per order.
Appearance & Presentation of food.
Temperature & Freshness of food.
Quality & Taste of food.
Overall Ambience and Atmosphere
WOW Factor - Just that little extra that makes you want to come back for more... :)

Each of these being worth 1/2 a point. So for a rating of 5 you'd have to get the whole lot right! The only place we would have given a 5 to so far is Caloundra!!!

Mr Mark - 3 1/2

Ms_Zane - 3 1/2

Mark -n- Zane

Victoria Point

2007-01-27T12:01:00.000+10:00

The BOSS HOG at Vicki Point

The Party

To celebrate out national holiday, we gathered a small group and decided to go an sample the Hog's Breath Cafe at Victoria Point on the east side of Brisbane. Despite the TV adds for Lamb, we wanted beef and there is nothing un-Austrailian about that - sorry Sam...

From L to R [clockwize] Caroline, Scrapmanda, Pete, Marissa, Ms_Zane and Mr.Mark.
The kids were given their own table but seemed a little camera shy so are not on the HOG BLOG.

We brought the tri-pod this time so we could get a slightly more clear shot thanks to the auto time-delay functions...

Mr.Mark's Dinner

This is the "Garlic Mushroom" Prime Rib [Standard Size Cut, Medium Rare] with Hogtail Fries, Vegies and the delectable Hoggies' cheese sauce.

ALL DONE!!!

Good too see he eats his greens :)

Mr.Marks Dessert - MUDCAKE!!!
All 29 Points Done Too!!!

Ms_Zane's Dinner

Ms_Zane had the "El Grande" Prime Rib (Standard Cut, Medium Rare), baked potato and salad with everything on the side [this must drive the kitchen "nuts"].

Point to note - Ms_Zane doesn't actually eat the full size steak. She carefully selects the "eye" of the filltet and promptly passes the rest to Mr.Mark who likens it to having a BOSS HOG [33% larger] cut...

Overall a very pleasent night with good service and very tasty meals...

Mr.Mark's Rating - 4/5

Ms_Zane's Rating - 4/5

We'll be back to this one for sure...

A DESSERT TO DIE FOR

2007-01-21T00:23:00.000+10:00

Whilst looking for a photo for a Ms_Zane's scrap layout, I found this - a photo of the aftermath of my dessert from New Years Eve at the Cleverland Hog's Breath Cafe. It is of course the Hog's Breath legendary "Mississippi Mud Cake" and Ice Cream...

YUM!!!

Mark -n- Zane

PS: Ms Zane wanted me to add that this devine dish has a POINTS Value of 29 per serve...

PPS: Ms Zane only gets 20 points per day !!!

Scrappin @ Hoggies!

2007-01-20T11:29:00.000+10:00

Well well well, you'll never believe what has happened!!! Last night (I must admit after a few baccardi's) Mark decided that he had an idea for a layout and he wanted to scrap!!! After several hours, many photo prints, some computer lessons, some scrap supply lessons and a bit of journalling this layout is the completed project:

The whole Layout

With the top coasters up
(yes we did borrow these on our last trip to Hog's Breath)!

With the bottom coasters up...

With all the coasters up!

So what does everyone think??? The title is with Ghost letters across the photos and says We love Hogs Breath... It's a bit hard to see in these photos but it is there! :)

Mark -n- Zane

Carindale - West Field Shopping Centre

2007-01-17T13:29:00.000+10:00

Whilst researching Hoggies locations on the net [for this blog], we quickly realized that we had not been to the Hog’s Breath Café at Carindale.

A quick phone call got us a table for 7:30PM to fix that!

Once seated, Ms Zane and myself began the night with the usual liquid intake of a glass of red (for Ms Zane) and a Barcardi and coke (for Mark).

Our waiter (or is that waitress?) Neeta came over to take our orders, but as usual, Ms Zane was undecided looking at the various other option in the menu (and the POINTS values of everything).

Caught with her Eating Out Guide!

Regardless of the other pages in the menu there is only one page that means anything – the STEAK page!!!

…and of course, if your still hungry, maybe this might be of interest to you…

We both decided on the same Steak – prime rib with smoked hickory. Ms Zane ordered hers with the hickory on the side, a side salad (with the dressing on the side) and a baked potato (again with the sour cream on the side). I was originally going to have a natural prime rib, but decided to go the hickory as well (like Ms Zane, I ordered that on the side) with mash and veggies.

Our meals had a slight delay due to a rather busy (for a Tuesday) night in the kitchen, but our waitress “Neeta" came over to advise us of the delay and inquire if everything was still OK.

Our meals arrived in good time and how can you go past this?

Ms Zane's Dinner

Mr Mark's Dinner

Naturally during the course of the evening, our friendly waitress “Neeta” came over to inquire about how the meals were, and even snapped this photo for us – thanks Neeta!

Overall the atmosphere, service and (of course) the meal was everything we would expect from a Hog’s Breath Café, and we will be back to this one for sure…

Mark’s Rating – 4.5/5

Ms Zanes Rating – 4.5/5

Also we have to take a minute to wish lovely Neeta well with her new enterprises as we were sad to hear that she has resigned from Hog's Breath to start working at a pharmacy closer to home! All the best!

Mark n Zane

Townsville - Flinders Street

2007-01-16T18:40:00.000+10:00

On a recent trip up north, we decided to check out yet another Hog's Breath Cafe, this time Flinders Street, Townsville.

But what to choose?

Mz Zane browsing the menu...

I don't know why there is even more than one page to the menu - like the "matrix" website, the password is here is STEAK and you just can't go wrong with a Hog's Breath, slow cooked (18 hours) delicious medium rare cut of Grain Fed Prime Beef...

During the course of the day however, the service was not quite up to our expectations starting with James (our very polite waiter) completely forgetting our drinks order. Then when selecting what we wanted we were told that even though the menu does not specify this - you cannot order mash or baked potato at lunch, the only option here is hog's tail fries. Finally after a rather long wait of over 35 minutes (and there was just 6 people in the restaurant all of whom had been served their meals either prior to or just after we ordered) we were served our lunches. Unfortunately after the first bite we realised that our chips were cold.

A little bit frustrated we called over the manager and explained (politely as possible of course) that we had been waiting quite some time and that we were not happy to have cold chewy chips (we thought we'd best leave it unsaid about the forgotten drinks since James was great and grabbed them straight away after a reminder)! The manager Sandy explained that James was the new "trainee" and apologised humbly for a extended time delay that resulted in cold fries. This was remedied quickly with a fresh new plate of steaming hot "hog tails" straight out of the fryer :) I have to say here though, that we did not feel that it was James' fault that the chips were cold being that he wasn't working in the kitchen at all!

All in all Mark gives this Hog's Breath a 3.5 out of 5. Zane being a bit more fussy gives a 3 out of 5.

Mark -n- Zane

"You've Got Hog's Breath"

2007-01-16T17:34:00.000+10:00

Hog's Breath Cafe at Airlie Beach, Queensland

"The best a steak can get" - They're signature says it all.

They're 18 hour steaks most certainly are the Best, and both Ms Zane and myself will travel far for such a steak, so the purpose of this blog is to share our Hog's Breath Cafe experiences with you all...

Whilst Ms Zane has only been going to Hog's Breath Cafe since 2005, I've had "Hog's Breath" since 1994 and today we are both card carying "frequent dinners". Until this week Ms Zane's "Hog's Breath" experiences covered restaurants from Brisbane to Airlie Beach including; Loganholme, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, Cleveland, Caloundra (the BEST yet), Airlie Beach and as of last Friday we have gone further out to add Flinder's Street in Townsville to the list!

Our most memorible visit was for our FIRST fantastic New Years Eve together (2005) in Airlie Beach - home of the very first Hoggs Breath Cafe :) This year we enjoyed the Hog's Breath at Cleveland for our New Years Eve experience, initiating Zane's 72 year old Grandmother and 80 year old Grandfather to the Hoggies experience!

Mark & Ms Zane

Nanna & Paby

My Hog's Breath includes Darwin in the Northern Territory, both Townsville resturaunts, Airlie Beach, Mackay, Rockhampton and various other Hog's Breaths Cafes across the South East...

Mark and Zane

PS. In the picture above you can also see Jamaica Joe's - we ate there too as it was started by the same man as Hog's Breath, but nothing can tear us away from a good steak!!